A man died after weight loss surgery at a private hospital, an inquest heard.
Phil Morris, from Newport, died at the Spire St Anthony’s Hospital in Cheam, Surrey, in December 2021, four days after sleeve gastrectomy surgery.
It was hoped Mr Morris, 48, would return home two days after the surgery, but things started to go wrong.
Giving evidence at South London Coroner’s Court, Mr Morris’ wife, Dana, said her husband had elected to go private due to delays in NHS treatment.
Mr Morris, an actor, writer and university lecturer, was a founding member of Wales Arts Review, and from 2012 to 2016 was its managing director.
The family had moved to south London from Newport in 2016.
The inquest was told that Mr Morris was diagnosed with diabetes in 1995, initially thought to be type 1 but a further assessment in 2018 found that he actually had type 2 diabetes.
He was also diagnosed with sleep apnoea in 2007.
Mr Morris underwent a bariatric assessment in 2018 but was unable to have the treatment then because his diabetes was not under control.
He later had the surgery privately in 2021 because of delays in treatment on the NHS, the inquest heard.
According to the NHS, the sleeve gastrectomy procedure involves removing a large part of the stomach so it is much smaller than it was before, meaning you cannot eat as much as you could and feel full sooner.
Mrs Morris’ evidence, which was read to court, told how her husband had difficulty swallowing and was short of breath in the hours after the surgery and that his condition worsened over the following days.
He died at the hospital in the early hours of 10 December 2021.